Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

redwillowscom This was a terrible documentary about a wonderful thing. The beauty and mystery of everything in the film is worthy of a much better filmmaker. In one sitting, he merges information about volcanos, neutrinos, and penguins. It's very disjointed. He excites us with philosophical questions, then switches the subject entirely. It's like a film school student was trying to make something edgy, but his professor never got to edit it before they published it. I had to mute the Gothic music he decided to play over the clips of diving under the iceberg. I wanted to feel the solemn silence that scientists must feel down there. I wanted to let my mind run where it may, but instead I kept having to think to myself "Why is there a man yodeling?" (his choice of soundtrack anytime anything of interest was on screen). When he was interviewing scientists who were talking about their passion, you could feel their excitement as they spoke. But Werner insisted on constantly panning in on them, taking away any hope of subtlety. He featured pointless interviews with bus drivers that I expected to have lead up to the reason why they had found themselves in Antarctica, but didn't. The whole time I thought it would eventually tie up together at the end, but that never happened and I was extremely disappointed with the entire thing.

Hasan Bilal This movie is not your typical type of environmentalist documentaries focused around the earth's beauty and or the circle of life. Indeed, filmmaker Werner Herzog makes it a point to state his disinterest in making "another film about penguins". The key word in the title is not the 'End' of the world, but the 'encounters' at the end of it. Herzog documents his journey to Antarctica where he delves into the lives of the inhabitants on the continent. The focuses of the film are the eccentric characters present amidst the harsh climactic conditions, their stories, and the passion that drives them through their oddly surreal lifestyle. However this is not to say that the documentary does not document the environment and nature in Antarctica. In fact, contrary to Herzog's statement, the filmmaker does question an expert about penguins and their antics. The film is a hypnotic and serenely beautiful take on what life is like down in Antarctica and achingly calls out to the humanity and spirituality of the viewer.

Yashesh Joshi Cinematographer: Peter Zeitlinger Dedicated to late Roger Ebert, Encounters at the End of the World is another avant-garde documentary piece by Hergoz. Along with his cameraman (Zeitlinger), this time he ventures to southmost point of the planet—Antarctica, South Pole.Ebert is clearly all enamored by the film, praising it highly, and rightly so.Hergoz's largely extempore interviews with scientist and travelers in various Antarctican base camps form the base material of the film. He eventually uses these casual interactions to explicate an underlying script for the film.The footage beautifully captures the exotic Antarctica—loony penguins running wild, astounding seal-calls, luminescent jelly fish, under-surface tunnel leading right below the South Pole—leaving you simply bewitched. Mesmerizing underwater footage gives you a feel of the nether regions. Personally, I would have preferred the dead-silence of the sea bottom. However, realizing that the silent period would be little too long, Hergoz substituted it with cathedral-like music.Making this film seem so natural was no mean feat, and wouldn't have been possible for any other, even capable, director. Due to his reputation, Hergoz was allowed exclusive access to some publicly inaccessible areas and personnel. An excerpt from film Wikipedia page: "The film was shot in Antarctica as part of the National Science Foundation's Antarctic Artists and Writers Program. The entire film crew consisted of Herzog, who recorded all production sound, and cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger. The two went to Antarctica without any opportunity to plan filming locations or interview subjects, and had only seven weeks to conceive and shoot their footage. Herzog often met his interview subjects only minutes before he began shooting them.Filming in Antarctica is usually overseen by the National Science Foundation's media office, which approves and supervises all film productions. Because of Herzog's grant from the Artists and Writers Program, he was allowed to film with no minders or oversight from the NSF. This allowed them to film the "seal-bagging" footage, which is not typically deemed suitable for public release." Of course, you can read more in the wiki-page itself.Peter Zeitlinger's astonishing behind-the-lens work deserves a special mention here. As always, he measures up to the vision and eccentricities of Herzog every time—exploring ice caves forged by fumaroles (volcanic steam and gas) on the slope of an active volcano is the best example of it.Through this film, Hergoz is basically asking a question about Earth and mankind's distant future.8.2/10

Koundinya Werner Herzog's narration with improper enunciation is overshadowed by the land everyone dreams of visiting in their lifetime. A treat to lovers of nature and those who are ardent fans of 'Discovery'. A lovely documentary set in the land of ubiquitous icebergs and moaning seals.The movie takes you to the least inhabited continent on this planet. A land that has barely any vegetation and verdant fields but has million of hectares of nothing but ice. The continent was believed to be static by the early explorers but observations and constant research has shown the continent is a cluster of several hundreds of thousands of icebergs which are ready to move north at will.Herzog interviews several scientists who are here on a purpose, who have been through civil wars in a totally different nation, who have been held hostage and those who have done years of research on language that is deemed to be extinct.The documentary is bolstered with the brilliant background score and the scenes shot sub-marine; under several meters thick ice lies a sea and a totally different species of marine life that could lead to several answers on the long-asked questions on the origin of life on Earth. The background score and the wonderful handling of camera could put the makers of 'Tree of Life' to shame.Herzog learns about a few disoriented penguins and has ensured the movements of the deserters are well-captured. Herzog also takes us to the only one among three volcanoes on the planet that exposes its magma lake and then to the helium balloon set into the stratosphere, a balloon that could trap neutrinos and give a radiant blue beam of light upon making with the neutrinos.